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[hxppythxughts]

[Her shoulders slump with some relief as he gives her permission to go on.] Okay. Um, well...

[She pops her bracer open to access the screen and pulls up her message history with Miss Zarves.] I wanted to ask Miss Director about the jellyfish, but since she's not here I tried Lucas and Leon. They couldn't tell me anything, so I asked Miss Zarves. This is what she told me.

[She holds out her arm to Sans so that he can see the latest message. It doesn't appear to be about the jellyfish, though.]

[ribticklers]

[Sans's expression doesn't ever change much, being a skeleton and all, but he keeps it deliberately still as he listens. Sans happens to like Miss Zarves, but he's also of the opinion she has the potential to be incredibly dangerous, and Sayori is far too sincere and easily hurt, as far as Sans can tell.

(The others from the Bureau, too, but in different ways.) He reads through the message silently. He skips the bee movie thing, of course. Considering how often he talks to Miss Zarves, odds are he's already gotten that at least once himself.]

Talking to her's an experience, ain't it?

[That's not a reaction to anything, or maybe it is.]

[hxppythxughts]

...

Oops, I showed you the thing about the bees, didn't I? [She forgot that was at the bottom...] Yeah, she's funny! The thing she did with everyone on the network was kinda mean but maybe she really was trying to help. [Easy for Sayori to say. She made sure to stay far away from that location once she figured out where it was happening.

She withdraws her arm and scans the message again herself, her expression contemplative.] ...she didn't have to help me, but she did. Just like you!

[ribticklers]

I'm pretty sure she's bored bein' stuck where she is. [Bored and powerful, a wild combination.] So, what d'you think about what she said?

[hxppythxughts]

[Sayori is silent for a moment. She sat on this for a few days already, hoping to get over the horrible, nauseous pit the last messages put in her stomach. She no longer feels the urge to cry when she reads it, but her gut turns as she starts to unearth her thoughts from the compartment she buried them in.] ...Maya and Alex...they thought something had to have happened to me. Like a magic spell or something...

But-- but I noticed. I noticed... [She stutters. Hesitates. There's something in her that screams to look away from it all, but she swallows the urge and continues.] When we were on Maru, Franziska asked me what my last name was, and I couldn't remember it. I thought maybe it was like the Hunger, and it got erased, because it was all, um... [She gestures a little bit with her hands, curling and wiggling her fingers to represent:] ...like static.

But after we came home from Lyrabar I looked at my dorm assignment. It has Sun's full name on it...but mine just says Sayori.

[She's not as dumb as she seems, sometimes.]

[ribticklers]

[No family name, then. That doesn't seem necessarily that odd, except Sayori clearly expects that she should have one. Sans watches her.] D'you know anyone from back home who has a family name?

[hxppythxughts]

[chr = "monika"

print(chr.find("surname"))
print(chr.index("surname"))

C:\██████████████
-1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "██████████████", line ██ in ███████████
print(chr.index("surname"))
ValueError: substring not found

chr = "yuri"

print(chr.find("surname"))
print(chr.index("surname"))

C:\██████████████
-1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "██████████████", line ██ in ███████████
print(chr.index("surname"))
ValueError: substring not found

chr = "natsuki"

print(chr.find("surname"))
print(chr.index("surname"))

C:\██████████████
-1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "██████████████", line ██ in ███████████
print(chr.index("surname"))
ValueError: substring not found

She presses her lips together and shakes her head slowly.] ...if they do, I can't remember any of them.

[ribticklers]

Then I guess the question is why you think it's strange you don't have one. [Sans is working through possibilities, but he doesn't know if an answer will actually be helpful here.]

[hxppythxughts]

[Maybe compared to her friends, it's not weird, but--as a whole, there's something missing.

She takes a wrapped candy off of the bed to fidget with.] Because... I come from a normal world. We don't have monsters, or magic, or, um, big bases on the moon like this. I just...go to school and the Literature Club with my friends. What did I write on my tests if I don't have a last name? How--how'd I even enroll in school?

[Plus, it seems like most of her memories of her actual classes were in question too. The clearest memories were all of the Literature Club.]

[ribticklers]

[The implication there is that Sayori can't remember what she wrote on her tests.]

You'd think, if everybody you know from home only has one name, you'd be more surprised any of us have them than that you don't. [It's a weird thought to hold in your head, which probably means it's relevant to the situation.]

My guess is you've never had a last name.

[hxppythxughts]

[Again, it's hard to admit. It's like she has to force it out--her voice is small and strained] ...that's what I thought too.

[That's what Miss Zarves implied.

But if that's the case, then...

She falls quiet and doesn't speak of the dozens of other fuzzy memories they saw. The plastic wrapper of the candy crinkles as her grip on it tenses.]

[ribticklers]

Have some more candy, kiddo, you'll feel better. [That probably doesn't work on everybody. Sans is still thinking, though.]

[hxppythxughts]

[Well, it can't really make things worse. (It could if it was one of the weird candies but she made sure it wasn't.)

She nods and twists open the wrapper to pop the candy in her mouth. The plastic remains between her fingers for further fidgeting. Her speech does admittedly lose some gravitas when she has to talk around the candy.] ...I just don't understand why I thought I remembered all that stuff if I didn't.

[ribticklers]

[There are things Sans could think to do to test the extent of her memory. Questions he could ask. Maybe more, depending on if he decided to look in the library or just keep going right now.]

You don't have to think about this stuff. Not if you don't want. You're gettin' along okay here. [Well, as much as someone like Sayori could be expected to. But what he's asking, without actually asking, is "do you actually want to dig into all this?"]

[hxppythxughts]

Mm. [She looks down at her bracer again, still open to show the screen.] Miss Zarves said something like that too.

[Considering her circumstances, Sayori's done pretty well with not thinking about it around other people. But when she's alone, thinking about the remains of her world in the Hunger's insatiable belly, and how unqualified she is to be doing something so serious, it's like a stuffy nose--impossible to ignore when all you want to do is sleep.

She looks up from the wrapper to meet Sans's gaze, unusually serious.] ...you have people from home that you care about, right? People you love?

If you realized one day that you couldn't remember the name of the person you love most... Wouldn't you want to know why?

[ribticklers]

[Sans suspected it would be an answer sort of like that. Not in the specifics, but one that means they'll be going down this particular rabbit hole.]

Then I guess we're starting with you tellin' me about your world. Not specifics. What kind of places do people live in? Who do they live with? What do kids do? How 'bout adults?

[hxppythxughts]

[Despite the heavy tone of the conversation, Sayori cracks a bit of a smile.] Geez, I didn't know there was gonna be a quiz.

But, um, okay... We live in houses? Most of them have two stories. I could probably jump from my house to the house next to mine if I were better at jumping.

People... ["Who do they live with" is a difficult question considering what she talked about with Mista. The shift in her expression as she turns over the question is obvious.] ...people...live with their families. [And then, something she can say with certainty:] I know Natsuki lives with her dad. Kids are raised by their parents...they go to school and stuff. They're kinda supposed to do extracurriculars so they learn how to socialize and don't turn into NEETs. And...adults have jobs and boring stuff.

[ribticklers]

[Sounds basically like what Sans knows of humans from his world. Good, Sans can work with that. He picks up on the way Sayori's expression shifts as she talks about families and starts there.] What's your family like?

[hxppythxughts]

[Her shoulders slump as she averts her eyes.] I can't remember. Mista was wondering where they all were.

The only person I can remember from growing up is my best friend.

[ribticklers]

[Sans slots together the logic, which is simple enough.] If it's like your name, it's because you don't have one.

[Is it cruel to just say it? Is it worse not to? Sans doesn't know, but the mathematics is so basic that the path of least resistance is to fill in the best answer.]

[hxppythxughts]

[She thinks back to the memories that Mista saw. He was wondering where they were because he never saw them. And no matter how much Sayori tries to remember, she never saw them, either.

The candy transitions from sweet to sour on her tongue.

Her parents. Her teachers. Her classmates...

She wraps her arms around herself with another small crinkle of plastic.] Then all those other people...

[ribticklers]

[Another question, before he can think too much about the look on her face:] How many people back home did you meet, ever?

[hxppythxughts]

[That's a difficult question even for a normal person--who can keep track of everyone they've ever met? Especially someone as friendly as Sayori?

But her disposition being what it is, it's even stranger that she tries and tries, and...] There's... there's Monika, Yuri, Natsuki...

[A heavy pause.] ...my best friend...

[She trails off. She can't think of any other names.]

[ribticklers]

[Simplest conclusion: that's all the people who exist. It's also absolutely bizarre. Sans continues, relentless.] Who's your best friend?

[hxppythxughts]

[She shakes her head, closing her eyes.] His name's gone too. But I remember him. I've known him as long as I can think of. He--we took care of each other when we were kids. We'd play outside, and I'd do something dumb and get hurt and he'd tell me to be more careful, and...he cooked for me and helped me clean when I--

[She winces a little, still finding it reflex to avoid speaking candidly about her mental health.] Um, when I was tired. He joined the Literature Club because I asked him to.